This is helper is mostly inspired by Pagination navigation helper, but there are some differences:

• only list (ul/li)
• emphasize the actual page we are browsing
• stylish is done with pure css
• all parameters of the original request are kept in uri when paginating (article/list/category_id/5/page/3 instead of article/list/page/3)
• we only need 1 parameter (current uri is guessed)

PaginationHelper.php

function pagination($pager)
{
    $uri = sfRouting :: getInstance()->getCurrentInternalUri();
    $html = '';
 
    if ($pager->haveToPaginate())
    {
        $uri .= strstr($uri, '?') ? '&page=' : '?page=';
 
        if ($pager->getPage() != 1)
        {
            $html .= '<li>' . link_to('first', $uri . '1') . '</li>';
            $html .= '<li>' . link_to('previous', $uri . $pager->getPreviousPage()) . '</li>';
        }
 
        foreach ($pager->getLinks() as $page)
        {
            if ($page == $pager->getPage())
                $html .= '<li><strong>' . link_to($page, $uri . $page) . '</strong></li>';
            else
                $html .= '<li>' . link_to($page, $uri . $page) . '</li>';
        }
 
        if ($pager->getPage() != $pager->getLastPage())
        {
            $html .= '<li>' . link_to('next', $uri . $pager->getNextPage()) . '</li>';
            $html .= '<li>' . link_to('last', $uri . $pager->getLastPage()) . '</li>';
        }
 
        $html = '<ul class="pagination">' . $html . '</ul>';
    }
 
    return $html;
}

Minimal CSS

ul.pagination li {
    display: inline;
    list-style-type: none;
    padding-right: 1em;
}

In your template

<?php echo use_helper('Pagination') ?>
<?php echo pagination($pager) ?>

This in the easiest way (I found) to debug an object (or variable).

In an action

$this->debugMessage(sprintf('<h1>object</h1><pre>%s</pre>', print_r(@$this->object, true)));

In a template

<?php use_helper('Debug') ?>
<?php echo debug_message(sprintf('<h1>object</h1><pre>%s</pre>', print_r(@$object, true))) ?>

Based on symfony book debug page.

Here is a usefull helper to calculate url for another application :

function baseurl_for($application, $absolute = false)
{
    $url = $absolute ? 'http://' . $_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"] : '';
    $url .= '/' . $application . (SF_ENVIRONMENT != 'prod' ? '_' . SF_ENVIRONMENT : '') . '.php/';
    return $url;
}

in the action :

<?php echo link_to('Whatever', baseurl_for('application', true) . 'module/action') ?>

I really feel like this feature is missing, hope this could added soon ;) ... example corrected (but sadly not so usefull) according to francois's comment.